As Ms. McMahon held a wiggling crab and joked about steering the boat, gone was the image of an exacting CEO in a tailored suit and pearls that beamed across Connecticut during her unsuccessful bid for Senate last year.

The former wrestling league chief, who ran on the Republican ticket as a steely executive, is trying a new approach: She's playing up her softer side and distancing herself from the lucrative career that first launched her into the race.

People familiar with Ms. McMahon's plans to run again for a Senate seat in 2012 say that while she won't officially declare until next month, she's already undertaking a larger push to right the wrongs of her failed race, revamping her image into a warmer, more likable figure in hopes of drawing female voters.

It won't be easy. Women have been less likely to support female candidates historically. The gender gap is particularly apparent among Republicans, where women tend to choose candidates in line with their more moderate stances on social and family issues.

"Women are generally harder on other women," said Debbie Walsh, director of the Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics. "But Linda McMahon has an added issue: Women find the business she is intrinsically tied to distasteful and can't differentiate between the business she runs and who she is."

In an interview, Ms. McMahon, 62 years old, said she is "seriously leaning in the direction" of a run to replace long-serving Sen. Joe Lieberman, who announced in January he would not run for another term.

If she does, she will be joining an already crowded field.

The Democratic contest between Rep. Chris Murphy, former Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and state representative William Tong is already underway. Only Brian Hill, a Hartford attorney, has declared his candidacy on the Republican side, but former Rep. Chris Shays and former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker have indicated an interest.

Ms. McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO, is "taking stock of what worked and what didn't in her campaign," state Republican Chairman Jerry Labriola said. "She certainly has grown a lot as a candidate."

She has spent the summer at community events around Connecticut. She has taken tours of Bridgeport charter schools, marched in parades and helped unveil the Danbury Chamber of Commerce's new Women's Business Center. During that time, she's also given away hundreds of thousands of dollars through her family foundation to nonprofits across the state.

"To meet Linda is to like her," said someone familiar with her 2010 campaign strategy. "Her thing is taking off the high heels and going to football games, shaking hands… but it works much better in person because that authenticity doesn't translate well to TV."

During last year's race, her attempt to use her career to demonstrate business acumen during tough economic times backfired: Women were turned off by her decades-long involvement in shaping the wrestling industry, with its long history of violence and perceived misogyny.

In some polls, women disapproved of her by a margin of nearly 2 to 1.

She was criticized for slamming $50 million worth of television, direct-mail and radio advertising at Connecticut voters. After an awkward moment when she was caught not knowing the state's minimum wage, she was seen as a wealthy, out-of-touch elite.

She lost to then-state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal with just 43% of the vote.

"Women, by and large, are more demanding of women candidates because we expect more from them," Ms. McMahon said in the interview. "But I've found that when women have misperceptions about me. If I have a chance to meet with them one on one or in small groups, they feel much more confident in me."

At a May luncheon at the Town and County Club for the West Hartford Republican Women's club, Ms. McMahon circulated among the attendees, shaking hands, taking photos and embracing supporters.

"She was upbeat, honest about what she did wrong and what she did right in her campaign," said Kim Perna, a real estate agent in Glastonbury who attended the event. "I'd vote for her this time around, but I'm not sure other women will because many women have a hard time relating to her."

On the oyster boat in Norwalk, "She turned out to be this informed, regular person: She laughed at my jokes, she wasn't pretentious and then ended up giving the nonprofit a $20,000 donation," said Terry Backer, a state representative and founder of Soundkeeper, a Norfolk-based nonprofit that monitors Long Island Sound.

State Democratic Party Chair Nancy DiNardo said Ms. McMahon will not shed her image so easily.

"While tea-party conservatives might like her politics and Republican insiders might like her bank account, she—like conservative Republican candidates across the state—did not connect with the people of this state," Ms. DiNardo said in a statement.

"Fifty million wasn't enough to convince voters last year, and it won't be enough in 2012," she said.

Even if she is successful in remaking her image, Ms. McMahon, like any GOP candidate, would have to contend as a Republican in a blue-leaning state amid a national re-election effort for President Barack Obama.

"The political calculus is different [than in 2010], and the environment will be harder all around for Republicans in Connecticut just because the state tends to vote for Democrats," said Jennifer Duffy, senior editor for the Cook Political Report.

Former staffers and some political observers say that while Ms. McMahon still brings her deep pockets to a potential campaign, she won't have to spend nearly as much money just to achieve name recognition.

"That buys her time and potentially overcomes an issue she had last time around with oversaturation of voter attention," said Doug Schwartz, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

As the economy continues to wobble and Congress fights over how to fix it, her Washington outsider status and business experience could now be seen as a plus, he said.

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